No, there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to this story.
The source for this story is mediafetcher.com, which describes itself in huge type on its homepage as:
Celebrity Fake News Hoax Generator
Everything about this story is wrong.
1) Toots is not athletic.
2) Toots hates speed and sudden movement. If he's freaked out by an aggressive taxi driver (per his personal account to me) there's no way he's going to get on a jet ski.
3) At 93 1/2 he's way too old to be riding a jet ski - consider that he was in a wheelchair two years ago at his big Carnegie Hall concert
4) He's never hung out in Turks and Caicos.
Also, I checked news sites for Belgium (where he's a huge public figure), France, and Turks and Caicos and found absolutely nothing. Zilch.
Winslow Yerxa
Producer, the Harmonica Collective
Author, Harmonica For Dummies, ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5
Harmonica Basics For Dummies, ASIN B005KIYPFS
Blues Harmonica For Dummies, ISBN 978-1-1182-5269-7
Resident Expert, bluesharmonica.com
Instructor, Jazzschool Community Music School
President emeritus, SPAH, the Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica
________________________________
From: jon kip <jon@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, October 24, 2015 10:49 AM
Subject: [Harp-L] Re: ***SPAM*** Harp-L Digest, Vol 146, Issue 8
well, considering that today is Oct 24, and the date of the article is Yesterday, and that three weeks ago, I got a note form Dick Gardner asking if that rumor was founded in fact....there's something out somewhere in this story.
> On Oct 24, 2015, at 5:22 AM, harp-l-request@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> Musician - Toots Thielemans dies following Jet-Ski crash in Turks and
> Caicos Islands
>
> *THIS STORY IS STILL DEVELOPING...*
>
> Musician Toots Thielemans died while on a personal vacation in Turks and
> Caicos early this morning from injuries sustained in a Jet-Ski accident -
> October 23, 2015
jon kip
jon@xxxxxxxxxx